Developing Strength of Will

by Roberto Assagioli

To insure success, it is of paramount importance that a proper preparation be made to create the initial urge and impetus; this preparation should arouse a lively, fervid and even passionate desire to develop the will, leading to the firm decision to do all that is necessary for attaining that end.

For this purpose, the following exercises will be found very helpful:

1. Settle yourself into a comfortable position, with your muscles relaxed.
   Reflect on the foregoing statements and apply them to yourself.

1. Picture to yourself as vividly as possible the harm, to yourself and to others, which has actually occurred, and which might occur, as a result of the present weakness of your will. Examine these occasions, one by one, formulating them clearly; then make a list of them in writing. Allow the feelings, which these recollections and forecasts arouse, to affect you intensely: shame, dissatisfaction with yourself, revulsion against the repetition of such conduct and an earnest desire to change this condition.

2. Picture to yourself as vividly as possible all the advantages the training of your will can bring to you; all the benefits and satisfactions that will come from it to yourself and to others. Examine them carefully, one by one, formulate them with clarity, and write them down. Allow the feelings aroused by these anticipations to have full sway: the joy of the splendid possibilities that open up before you; the intense desire to realize them; the strong urge to begin at once.

3. Picture yourself vividly as being in possession of a strong will; see yourself walking with a firm and decided step, acting in every situation with full self-control; see yourself successfully resisting any attempt at intimidation or enticement; visualize yourself as you will be when you have attained inner and outer mastery. This is the technique of the “Ideal Model”. The whole exercise makes use of the technique of visualization because of its value and effectiveness in any creative process.

2. This exercise consists of using reading material particularly suited to the cultivation and reinforcement of the feelings and determinations aroused by the mental visualization of the previous exercise. It should be encouraging, optimistic and dynamic in character, apt to arouse self-reliance and to incite to action. Very suitable for this purpose are biographies of outstanding personalities who have possessed great willpower, and books and articles intended to awaken the inner energies. But in order to get full benefit from such a course of reading, it must be performed in a special way. Read slowly, with undivided attention, marking the passages that impress you and copying those that are most striking or which seem specially adapted to your case. It is well to re-read these passages several times, absorbing their full meaning.

Source:
Training & Developing The Will by Roberto Assagioli
The Act of Will by Roberto Assagioli

Online References:
http://www.synthesiscenter.org/articles/0117.pdf